On Being Wrong
First of all, I’d like to admit something. I am wrong a lot. I don’t think I know anyone who isn’t often wrong. Nobody likes to be wrong, but it’s a totally natural part of being human. As a computer programmer, some days, it seems like computers are just machines that were designed to prove me wrong beyond any doubt, over and over again, and make me have to deal with it and repeatedly rework things. This is the reality I deal with every day.
A lot of the discourse you find on the internet is completely ridiculous. Lines are drawn in the sand. Everything is...

BarCamp is tomorrow, and it looks like it’s going to be a good time as usual. I have a quick announcement I’d like to make (which tangentially pertains to a couple of the talks we have listed).
Because I think bitcoin is just so darn nifty, I’m willing to give anyone who finds me at BarCamp and shows me a bitcoin wallet app on their Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry device a shiny new 0.005 of a bitcoin (worth approx. $2 at today’s exchange rate) to do with whatever they please.
You’ll notice iOS is missing from that list. As it turns out Apple isn’t much of a fan...

You know when Marty McFly goes into the future in Back to the Future 2? The time he arrives at is right now! While you’re reading this post! The current time in California! OMG!
Whatever you do don’t fact check this urgent information! Share! Share! Share!
Make your own.

I recently went through a live training session, and some videos involving Grails. I was surprised to see that bulk assignment to domain objects appeared to be common practice in the training materials. In other words, account.properties = params appeared to be the idiomatic way to update a domain object with new values from a web request. The problem with doing that, of course, is that an end-user can submit whatever form fields they choose, and easily change database fields you hadn’t intended for them to change. Fundamentally, this is the same problem PHP was accused of being very insecure...

“What are you doing here?”
That’s a phrase I’ve heard a lot. Most recently it was at Gigantour, as someone observed that a clean-cut geek like myself doesn’t fit the mold of typical metal fan. The observation, though slightly rude, wasn’t exactly news to me. The instance when I was most surprised to hear it happened when I was in grade 10, lined up to receive a bronze medal for my grades. The first place grade 11 student, who was someone I was acquainted with, leaned over and wondered aloud what I was doing there. The truth is though, despite being de...

Mootinator

/ˈmuːt.ɪn.eɪ.tə(ɹ)/noun

A person or thing that makes something have no practical impact or relevance.

use: That mootinator mootinated all my salient points with its facts and logic!

Origin:
1993-97; EFNet; Inversion of toominator. Originally had some sparse connection to The X-Files.